Mini-GoalsEven if you're not at goal yet, this is the place to share your successes and achievements along the way! Success can be measured in many ways besides the scales. Tell us about your triumphs, including Non Scale Victories

Last Wednesday, I gave up soda. I had one coke on Friday night, when I took my daughter out to dinner. Since then, I have had none. I took a sip of my sister's pepsi today, and I almost gagged! This is a really big thing for me. I've been drinking sweet tea, water, Vitaminwater, and Crystal Light...which, if you don't like the taste, I'm going to BEG you to try the tropical punch flavor. It tastes just like koolaid! I haven't been eating fried foods, and no junk. I have lost 5lbs since last Wednesday! I walk a lot at work, but besides that, I haven't been able to do a lot of exercise. Still, smaall steps, right?

Honestly, just regular sweet tea. I get it from a place called Hit n Run...lol You can drive thru and get soda, milk, eggs....just about anything. They have a really good sweet tea. It's not too terribly sweet, but it's good. I am drinking sweet tea with real sugar. Yes....real...sugar. I believe that right now, it's better than the 132+oz of soda that I was drinking a day. Plus, as long as it's in moderation, it's not horrible for you. You just have to find the moderation for you. Everybody's body reacts differently.
The soda thing was a willpower issue for me. It was so hard. I had a horrible migraine from the lack of caffeine yesterday, which made me want to keep going even more. If my body reacts that badly from not having it for a couple of days, I don't need it in my system at all.
I did something even better tonight, though. I was super hungry on my way home from work...and I had cash...and there's a McDonald's on the way home. It would have been very easy for me to go through and get something fast and crunchy...but I didn't. I just drove by, because I knew that the 5 minutes of omgness that I would experience in flavor, would mean that much longer to my goal.
So...yay!

Location: Sunshine State, Florida.. St. Petersburg. Where the sand is white, and the water is warm. ;]

Posts: 19

S/C/G: 210/195/145

Height: 5'10

Yeah, that's what I heard too, about sweet tea. It's just as bad as soda if it's got even a decent amount of sugar in it, because usually when people make it, they use real sugar. I've been able to drink sweet tea here and there, but I only use those blue equate packets. I also use them for my "Dieters Lite Lite Lemonade" Which me and my mom created.

When you go ot to eat, order a water with a small dish of lemon wedges. Squeeze two or three lemon wedges into the water, add the equate (blue) packets of sweetener.. (1 or two preferably) and it tastes like sweet lemonade but very softly. It's really good!

Also, as Lexi said, diet soda may not taste as good but they're deffinately not "bad for you" at all. They have no carbs, no calories, no sugar, no anything. Deffinately not anything to compare to regular and light cigarettes. I know, I.. guilty enough.. am a smoker. But I'm planning on quitting during my diet!! Yay me. Haha.

I used to LOVE my Mom's sweet tea growing up, it's one of those southern things that I grew up with. As I got older, I began to realize exactly how bad it was. She would put 2 cups of sugar into one gallon of tea, yikes! I've been drinking diet soda for years now and anytime I try to drink my Mom's sweet tea, I'm sickened.

As Sailorwife said, good luck to you! It's a long journey and whatever you find that makes things easier for you is always great.

__________________Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~ Dr. Seuss

I am a diet soda drinker. I've found that a lot of them DO taste terrible, and taste like you're just drinking chemicals....I think it's because I'm not used to artificial sweeteners yet...

But anyways. I've found that diet grape soda and diet strawberry soda and diet orange soda...and i would assume some other fruity sodas...Don't taste bad at all. Well, they at least taste the best out of all the ones I've tried..and I've gotten used to them.

I do think they are bad for you....I think having too much of any artificial sweetener is bad for you...but I also know if it weren't for those diet sodas, I probably wouldn't have made it as far as I have.

I guess it's like an addiction, and instead of breaking it I'm just adjusting it...so in that way it's bad. I shouldn't NEED soda to make it through my day....but it definitely HAS stopped me from slipping up as much as I could have.

Idk, in my opinion there is a good and a bad side to everything.

Anyways, Congrats imaninjadangit! That's great. Keep it up and I'm sure you'll do wonderfully....and I WILL try the tropical punch flavor...even though I'm generally not one for tropical punch. The only ones i've liked so far are raspberry ice and some other pomegranite one...haha.

__________________

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who really make it in this world are the ones who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, they make them.”

I don't like diet soft drinks either. I hate the taste and I have known too many people who have ended up with some very serious health issues because of aspartame. I chew a lot of sugarless gum; I try to keep my aspartame intake to my gum. When I'm dying for something sweet, I chew Juicy Fruit sugarless.

What I started doing to cut down on my soft drinks was to buy the small (1/2) cans of them. It still gives you the taste, but only half. I started by allowing myself one of the small cans everyday. I worked my way to only having it a couple times a week. By cutting them in half, it also helped me withdraw from caffeine without the horrible headaches I normally end up with.

Good for you for your small steps .... movement forward is still positive - one step or twenty !!